


‘Tis the season to be Wally

by Hinn_Raven



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Christmas, F/M, Fluff, M/M, Multi, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Past Child Abuse, Secret Santa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-26
Updated: 2013-12-26
Packaged: 2019-08-17 17:32:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16520873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hinn_Raven/pseuds/Hinn_Raven
Summary: Artemis learns to celebrate Christmas with her new family.





	‘Tis the season to be Wally

“Deck the halls with boughs of holly, falalalala, falalala. ‘Tis the season to be Wally, falalalala, falalala.”

Robin and Wally raced around the Cave, a string of multi-colored lights dangling between their hands, holly garlands adorning their hair. They both wore the ugly Christmas sweaters M’gann had knitted with pride. “Don we now our stealth aparallel, falalalalalalalala!”

Artemis rolled her eyes and concentrated on the open notebook in front of her. Physics equations (with French curse words in the margins, along with doodles of arrows) swam before her eyes, and she scowled. Back at Gotham North, she’d have been able to not study at all, and still ace all of her finals. But Gotham Academy, home to the rich, snobby, and intelligent, had much higher expectations of her. At least they let her wear pants now that there was snow.

“Do you two ever stop?” She grumbled, drawing her knees up closer to her, along with her notebook.

“Never!” Robin declared, grining scarily.

“C’mon Artemis!” Wally declared, grinning obnoxiously. “Where’s your Christmas Spirit?”

“I don’t have any,” Artemis grumbled, staring at her notebook, her pen going through the motions of copying equations.

“Supey!” Wally and Robin were completely distracted by Conner’s entrance. There was a blur of speed, and suddenly Conner was decked in Christmas lights from head to toe, his arms pinned to his sides by the multicolored lights. A star had been stuck onto his head, making him into a living, Kryptonian, Christmas tree.

Conner blinked, clearly stupefied. He shifted in place, clearly reluctant to break free and destroy the pretty lights. Wolf huffed from next to him, bedecked in a Santa hat and a collar with a snowflake shaped name tag.

M’gann walked in, wearing a Christmas sweater that had reindeer prancing across a navy background, with a silver glitter snowflake overlay, and a pair of reindeer antlers as a headband. She carried a tray heavily laden with eggnog and elegantly crafted holiday treats. “Who wants cookies?” She beamed, her Santa hat sliding slightly to the side as she was nearly full-on tackled by the enthusiastic trouble-making duo.

“Cookies!” Robin cheered, selecting a sugar-snowman and biting off the head. “Miss M, you outdo yourself!”

M’gann flushed slightly, smiling shyly while Wally helped himself to Russian tea-cakes and gingerbread Batmans. She finally spotted Conner and laughed, walking up to him and sticking a piece of fudge in his mouth. “Need help?” She grinned up at him.

“I’ve got this,” Conner insisted, valiantly, through the mouthful of delicious chocolaty goodness. M’gann brushed aside the crumbs that fell from his mouth, blushing slightly.

Artemis sighed, trying to focus on her notebook. Stupid physics.

Wally poked his head. “Yo Artie, why aren’t you joining in? M’gann made peanut brittle!” He flourished said holiday sweet grandly before taking a gigantic bite out of it. The accompanying noise would make dentists all around the world break into tears.

“Studying,” she muttered.

“Ah, c’mon!” Robin perched himself on the edge of the couch, face smeared in powdered sugar from the Russian tea-cakes. A candy cane dangled from his gloved fingers, tempting and sticky. “Aren’t finals over in Star City?”

Artemis stomped firmly on the sudden spike of panic in her chest. “Not my school,” she said with a shrug, turning a page of her notebook. “And I don’t celebrate Christmas,” she added for good measure.

“You don’t?” M’gann looked dismayed. “So… do you celebrate Hanukah then?”

“I’m the token Asian, M’gann, not the token Jew,” Artemis said, throwing her notebook across the room. Wally helpfully ran across, retrieved it, and shoved it back into her hands. “I just don’t celebrate any holidays. It’s not my thing.” Well, more not her dad’s thing. She had no doubt Mom would try that year. But five years of Christmas being completely ignored—or spent alone in the apartment—had kind of removed the charm of the holiday.

She’d spent her last Christmas with broken fingers and a bloody lip, courtesy of a long Christmas Eve training with her dad. They’d headed out the next morning, going north for her dad’s annual winter training exercise, which involved stranding Artemis in the woods without food for a week to see how she did.

This year, with Dad gone… she wasn’t sure how things would be different. Mom had half-heartedly try to decorate the apartment, but they didn’t own many decorations any more, and they didn’t have much money to spare to buy new ones. Not to mention, it had always been Artemis and Jade’s job to decorate, and without Jade to help, Artemis hadn’t felt up to it.

Dinah had offered an invitation to Christmas dinner with her, Roy and Ollie, but Artemis wasn’t sure if she was going to accept. Christmas with Roy glaring at her and throwing accusations her way didn’t exactly sound pleasant to her. Not to mention Ollie and Dinah possibly mentioning her past in front of Roy… she couldn’t imagine what Roy would do if he ever found out that some of his suspicions about her were somewhat grounded in reality. Probably get her thrown off the Team, somehow.

“You don’t celebrate anything?” M’gann’s expression fell somewhere between horrified and gobsmacked. “But, but…”

She shrugged. “My dad wasn’t into it. Kind of fell out of the habbit.”

“But what about GA?” Wally asked, brow furrowed.

“We weren’t close until recently,” she said. “I, uh, don’t think he actually knew I existed until Batman told him.” That much was true, at least.

“That’s awful!” M’gann exclaimed, looking like she was one more sentence about Artemis’ family life from bursting into tears. Artemis resolved not to mention winter training. At all.

Artemis shrugged. “It’s not that big of a deal. I get to sleep in, get a break from school…”

“And eat Miss M’s cookies!” Robin exclaimed, shoving a sugar cookie mottled with green and red frosting in her mouth. It was actually great, and Artemis told M’gann so. The Martian grinned at her, although it was clear that she was still shaken by the reminder that not everything was like her TV shows.

Kaldur walked in, wearing what had to be an entry for the Ugly Christmas Sweater contest. It was a neon green and red piece, with tinsel knitted in. Gaudy gold and silver baubles hung from the sleeves, and the image of a pained Santa was made of felt.

“Kaldur!” Robin said, the candy cane hanging from his mouth, the hook nearly hitting his nose as he talked. “You’ve got to try M’gann’s eggnog!”

Kaldur smiled indulgently, accepting the glass from M’gann, as well as a piece of toffee. “M’gann, did you make all of these yourself?” He took a sip.

“Yes!” M’gann enthused, her antlers falling slightly to the side. “I got the idea from episode—” She blushed and broke off, ducking her head.

“They are most excellent.”

“Hey Kaldur, do Atlanteans have a winter holiday thingy?” Wally asked. “’Cause Miss Artie here just dropped the ‘no Christmas’ thing on us.”

“Drop it Baywatch,” Artemis grumbled half heartedly, munching on her second sugar cookie.

“Wally,” Kaldur said dryly, raising an eyebrow, “You do realize that Atlantis spans both hemispheres? It would be incorrect to call any of our festivals truly seasonal.”

“Gah!” Wally threw his hands up in the air. “Well, any December festivals then?”

Kaldur smirked, clearly enjoying Wally’s cultural ignorance a bit more than he should. “We do indeed. It is not nearly as important for Atlanteans as Christmas and the corresponding holidays are for surface-worlders, but I suppose it is approximately the equivalent of your independence day.”

“Oooh, cultural lessons,” Robin said, grabbing a handful of Artemis’ hair and starting to braid it. Artemis ignored him, although it felt nice.

“A little help?” Conner called, having evidently given up on being able to remove the Christmas lights on his own. Sphere chirped cheerfully from beside him. All of Wally’s attempts to get Sphere into the holiday spirit had failed, the ribbons, paint, glitter, and tinsel not staying in place.

Artemis threw her notebook down on the couch, exhausted of trying to understand thermodynamics. Maybe she’d look at Spanish verbs again. They could be soothing. She had an appointment with that Dick Grayson kid tomorrow to study pre-Calc together, and Bette wanted to work on their history project later that night, so she was practically done anyway. She had an A- in Physics as it was, she was pretty sure bombing would only bring her down to a B. She snagged a glass of eggnog from M’gann, and walked into the kitchen, intending to find something a little more healthy than cookies to eat.

Robin slung his arm around her waist, grinning up at her like the shrimp he was. “You’ll crush your test,” he reassured her, the shit-eating smile plastered all over his face.

Wally threw his arm over her shoulder. “If you need help, I could, uh, maybe, help with that?” He was flushing, and rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand. Artemis found herself flushing too, much to her horror, but it was for a different reason entirely.

Above the three of them, all innocent and green and innocuous, was mistletoe.

Artemis hated her life. Maybe the boys wouldn’t notice…

M’gann let out a delighted shriek. “Mistletoe!” Artemis’ optimism threw up its hands and stomped off, cynicism returning to its rightful place.

“Ah, c’mon Artemis!” Robin cackled, seeing the look on her face. “Where’s your holiday spirit?”

“Let’s just get this over with,” Artemis sighed, although her mouth, that traitor, was smiling slightly.

The boys both quickly kissed her on the cheek, perfectly in sync, because they were creepy like that. She rolled her eyes, found her orange, and then sat back on the couch.

Robin and Wally quickly sat down on either side of her, squishing her between them. “Movie time!” Robin yelled, kidnapping her notebook, not that Artemis had any intention of studying.

M’gann clapped her hands, delighted, and flew over, dragging Conner with her. Kaldur walked over to the television, turning it on, and asking what movie they wanted to watch.

“It’s a Wonderful Life!” M’gann suggested.

“The Grinch that Stole Christmas,” Robin called out, elbowing Artemis in the ribs. She ruffled his hair in retaliation.

“Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer,” Conner muttered, almost too soft to hear.

“Miracle on 31rst Street,” Wally said, before suddenly turning to her. “Do you have a favorite?”

Artemis shrugged half-heartedly. “My… mom and I used to watch The Muppet’s Christmas Carol,” she admitted, suddenly missing Jade. “But we probably don’t have it,” she said quickly.

“We do,” Kaldur said. “But I have not seen it.”

“Neither have I!” M’gann said. “I’d love to see it! I love the Muppets!”

Kaldur started the movie and Artemis shifted, trying to get comfortable. Robin snuggled up against her. Wally was slightly more awkward, just sitting next to her, stiff as a board.

Screw it, Artemis decided, wrapping her arms around both boys. It was Christmas, and maybe it was time to celebrate it again. With her new family.


End file.
